[Music] in the introduction of the play Pygmalion a sudden downpour has pedestrians in Covent Garden sprinting for shelter or taxis beneath the portico of st. Paul's Church a young deflower girl an older gentleman and a man taking notes on the flower-girl speech are gathering in the rising action becomes clear that the note-taking man is only interested in phonetically noting the flower girls curbstone english he boast that he could teach her to speak like a duchess in three months it turns out that he is the famous Fona Titian Henry Higgins the elderly gentleman is Colonel Pickering an admirer and fellow speech expert Higgins invites Pickering to come around the next day to his home on wimple Street the next morning the flower girl Eliza Doolittle boldly shows up at Higgins his home where she offers to pay him to teach her to talk more genteel Pickering who is present says he will cover all expenses if in six months Higgins can pass Eliza off as a lady Higgins accepts the bed and begins tutoring Eliza in speech and manners months later Higgins takes Eliza on a surprise visit to his mother an intelligent and dignified lady it's a test of her newly learned skills Eliza now looks and acts the part of a fine lady but her vocabulary an unfortunate choice of topics gives away her humble beginnings some difficulty Higgins covers her gaffes while freddie is smitten with Eliza overall the test is a marginal success later mrs. Higgins scolds her son and Pickering both for treating Eliza like a doll especially for not considering what will happen to Eliza when the experiment is over months later after Eliza has honed her skills Higgins and Pickering put Eliza's talents to the test and she performs flawlessly back at the wimple Street laboratory Higgins and Pickering congratulate themselves on their victory with no thought of Eliza they dismissively proclaim the experiment over Higgins starts upstairs but then returns to get his slippers and finds Eliza weeping with rage in the place climax Eliza is enraged by Higgins insensitivity she won his bet for him and now she thinks that he will toss her back into the gutter the stormy scene ends with Higgins slamming the door and leaving in the falling action Higgins learns Eliza is in fact staying with his mother who defends Eliza's choice to leave him and Pickering a calm composed Eliza comes downstairs and greets the men thanking Pickering for treating her with respect from the very beginning but she says she no longer needs Higgins and she will not come back Higgins accused of serving gratitude but still holds out hopes for her return in the resolution Eliza leaves Higgins remains unsure about whether or not she is gone for good [Music] there are seven central characters in the play Pygmalion Higgins is an authority on phonetics described as a robust vital appetizing sort of man of forty or there abouts and is an energetic scientific type he is also careless about people's feelings this trait becomes most evident in his treatment of Eliza whom he transforms from a flower girl into an upper-class lady his inability to see and treat Eliza as anything more than an experiment forces her to take a stand for independence and self-respect while Higgins remains fundamentally unchanged by the end of the play he gains a new perspective on Eliza and views her with respect Eliza Doolittle also called Liza is introduced as a dirty shabbily dressed flower girl in need of a dentist her cockney accent places her in london's lower class yet her intelligence and ambition allow her to aspire to something finer in Higgins laboratory she has transformed into a lady who can pass for a duchess her real transformation comes with being treated like a lady and gaining self respect Colonel Pickering is the author of spoken Sanskrit and is a master of Indian dialects he is an elderly gentleman of the amiable military type and throughout the play he demonstrates a generous and courteous nature he's kind to Eliza as she changes from a flower girl to a lady Doolittle is described as an elderly but vigorous dustman a happy member of the undeserving poor he recklessly spends money he borrows from others he has no morals at all and is willing to turn his daughter over to Higgins no questions asked for five pounds mrs. Higgins is a gracious member of the upper class her affection for Higgins does not shield her from irritation at his lack of manners and she is adept at putting him in his place intelligent and perceptive she soon discerns the problems that her son's experiment will cause for Eliza Freddie is a young man member of the upper-class good-natured the somewhat weak and a true gentleman he is infatuated with Eliza at the end of the play Eliza suggests that she might marry Freddy though he has no money to support them both and may see him unfit for work but he is devote it to her unlike Higgins and he won't try to make her something that she's not mrs. Pierce is Higgins's housekeeper she has a strong sense of propriety and takes it upon herself to be sure that Eliza is cared for properly while in the house a bond between Eliza and mrs. Pierce grows and mrs. Pierce frequently pushes Higgins to show consideration for Eliza and to think about Eliza's future [Music] the flower shop clothing and the mirror are symbols in Pygmalion the flower shop represents the dream that drives Eliza to Higgins's laboratory after all the shop won't hire Eliza unless she is able to as she puts it talk more genteel it is a dream for which she is willing to transform herself by the end of the play Eliza has developed the manners and habits that disqualify a fine lady from earning her own living though Higgins reminds her about her dream of working in a florist shop Eliza may have outgrown that particular dream and will have to rethink her future clothing reflects the social status of characters for example he consists Lipper's represent his class as well as his disregard for Eliza as a symbol clothing represents Eliza's metamorphosis from flower girl to lady and Doolittle's rise from dust man to gentleman Eliza's father in particular illustrates the notion that a change of clothing may alter other people's perceptions when he makes an entrance in act to clad in a costume of his profession he is happy and proud to be one of the undeserving poor by act 5 his unlooked-for a rise in wealth as a parent when he arrives at the home of mrs. Eakins wearing a fashionable frock coat with white weskit and grey trousers dazzling silk hat and patent leather shoes he appears every inch a gentleman and has announced as such by the parlor maid however his new look is misleading while his social standing has risen his only gentlemanly attributes are those that have been forced upon him as middle-class morality claims its victim in act 2 Eliza is shocked to find a mirror in her new bathroom she doesn't know which way to look and finally hangs a towel over it this represents the moment when Eliza unguardedly sees herself as she is dirty disheveled and far from ladylike in her personal habits cloaked in a blue cotton kimono she emerges looking like a dainty and exquisitely clean young Japanese lady Eliza's glimpse in the mirror reveals to her the need for a change and the results of taking a bath prove that change is possible thus the mirror symbolizes self-awareness and identity language is a class barrier transformation appearance and identity and femininity are the themes of Pygmalion through the character of Higgins George Bernard Shaw reminds the audience that articulate speech is a divine gift and the eloquent words of Shakespeare Milton in the Bible form the basis of their native tongue Shaw emphasizes the hierarchy of in society through characters from different socio-economic levels Eliza with her cockney dialect is associated with the lowest social rank whereas Higgins and Pickering represent the elite the power of language to break through social barriers is fully realized in Eliza's transformation it she can steal nothing but Higgins language which cuts her off from her former life Shaw explores the theme of transformation by showing how a poor flower girl becomes a self-reliant lady Eliza's metamorphosis happens under the tutelage of Higgins who eventually refers to her as a creature an allusion to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein the professor does not realize his experiment represents some more important transformation than class it's the awakening of Eliza's soul all three facets of Eliza's transformation sight sound and soul come together when at last she breaks free of Higgins [Music] throughout the play the theme of appearance and identity speaks to the social status of characters language dress wealth and their manners and morality all serve as indicators of social class yet these signs are superficial Victorian values strictly define the status and functions for women and established firm boundaries for femininity among social classes in Pygmalion Shaw illustrates these class boundaries and roles through various characters especially Eliza a member of the working class poor mrs. Peirce Higgins's housekeeper and mrs. Higgins an upper-class lady of some wealth who has raised the family and keeps a home Shaw aims to show in Pygmalion to such boundaries with their fixed roles and definitions of femininity are artificial Shan visions a new ideal in Pygmalion a free-spirited educated self-reliant and career-minded woman [Music] Pygmalion and Galatea is the motif central to George Bernard Shaw's famed play Pygmalion the basis for Shaw's Pygmalion is a Greek myth retold by the ancient Roman poet Ovid in his masterwork metamorphosis young Pygmalion sees women as so inherently morally flawed that he rejects all thoughts of marriage and resolves to live alone nevertheless he uses his great skill as a sculptor to carve out of ivory a woman so perfect that he falls in love with her sure enough she is so beautifully fashioned that she seems to live and breathe and as time passes pygmalions adoration grows one day at the festival of Venus the goddess of love beauty and sexuality Pygmalion offers a prayer that he might be given a wife like his ivory virgin the goddess hears and understands what the young man doesn't dare directly ask that his creation may become his wife Venus decides to grant the sculptor's wish upon returning home he kisses a statue and finds that he is not touching cold ivory but warm yielding flesh Venus has given life to the sculpture and her name is Galatea like Pygmalion Higgins becomes Eliza's creator using the power of language to sculpt a lady from a dragon tailed guttersnipe like the scores of American millionairesses whom he has taught to speak Eliza is nothing more than a block of wood from which he will carve a Duchess in the final stage of her transformation a surge of passion brings Eliza to life and she becomes aware that she is an independent being separate from her creator and able to stand on her own in the plays dramatic conclusion Higgins is left behind in his mother's drawing-room as Eliza sweeps out no longer and a mobile creature but an individual able to make her own way the creation has broken free of its creator Shaw's ending is markedly different from Ovitz in Shaw's Pygmalion Higgins unlike his ancient counterpart does not get to keep his Galatea in fact he is exposed as foolishly misguided in this way Shaw seems to reject the old Gideon version it's worth noting that Ovid also reveals an ironic attitude toward many of his characters but Ovid doesn't make his disapproval nearly as explicit as george bernard shaw us for Ovid Pygmalion might be silly and rigid but he gets exactly what he wants [Music]